Rite Aid closing at least 63 stores

[babs]

That is interesting, every location I've seen lately and when traveling put up new signs. So I am very surprised there are still a number of locations without the new signs. Maybe there is some issue with Placer County, on changing the sign. I remember in the late 90's the store in Auburn had Thrifty signs up for months after the rest of the stores got Rite Aid signs, due to an issue getting sign permits. There used to be a Thrifty pole sign out by the road there, that was taken away and not replaced ever.

As of two weeks ago, I noticed that the Rite Aid in Warrenton, Oregon has not updated their signs. Rite Aid has a long-established store which started as PayLess and actually pre-dates even Fred Meyer, although a lot of new retail has arrived in the last several years. Rite Aid still has stores along the Oregon Coast in other towns, but I haven't been by any of them in a while and do not know if any have been updated.

The Pearl District store also has old signage. Perhaps wave 1 was taking care of stores with easier to replace store signs? But certainly could be an indication of stores closing as soon as the lease expires.

[ClownLoach]

That is interesting, every location I've seen lately and when traveling put up new signs. So I am very surprised there are still a number of locations without the new signs. Maybe there is some issue with Placer County, on changing the sign. I remember in the late 90's the store in Auburn had Thrifty signs up for months after the rest of the stores got Rite Aid signs, due to an issue getting sign permits. There used to be a Thrifty pole sign out by the road there, that was taken away and not replaced ever.

As of two weeks ago, I noticed that the Rite Aid in Warrenton, Oregon has not updated their signs. Rite Aid has a long-established store which started as PayLess and actually pre-dates even Fred Meyer, although a lot of new retail has arrived in the last several years. Rite Aid still has stores along the Oregon Coast in other towns, but I haven't been by any of them in a while and do not know if any have been updated.

The Pearl District store also has old signage. Perhaps wave 1 was taking care of stores with easier to replace store signs? But certainly could be an indication of stores closing as soon as the lease expires.

Rebranding is really a big effort for a retailer with as many stores as Rite Aid - especially when there is little consistency to the building designs, construction, and lease agreements which is typical of a company that grows through acquisition and rebranding as they have. I am sure they won't rebrand a store to be closed, but at the same time a lack of rebranding is not necessarily a good indicator of the performance or future of a store because it is such a darned difficult situation.

There are areas with strict sign ordinances, some that get stricter every day. There is a CVS in an old strip mall near South Coast Plaza that tried to just update to their slightly different logo (now they add that funky squared off heart and remove the / between CVS and the word pharmacy). They got caught by the city who had revised the allowance down for signage square footage in that area. Changing the sign for the revised logo meant that they were no longer grandfathered in and had to install new signage compliant with the ordinance. They had to change again. The "new" new sign is less than half the size of the original one. So if it's in an area like that they are better off keeping an old logo versus a new smaller sign.

Other restrictions can come up. A store I would believe would be a likely closure is Naples Island in Long Beach, which is just a few blocks from another Rite Aid in busier business district Belmont Shore. It's a slow store. But it did just get a new logo sign after a long battle. The Naples store is just a teeny bit closer to the ocean so they had to file with the coastal commission and planning commission for permission to change the sign. They had already been required to alter their logo to accommodate the special zoning district - the exterior sign was "Rite Aid of Naples in the old awning format. They were finally approved to change to real signs and remove the awning, but had to keep the goofy of Naples in a dated script font and the Rite Aid letters are half the size of the old ones. Stores under such requirements such as coastal commissions, historical districts, and even specialized business districts may have to jump through additional hoops to get approved, and Rite Aid probably only has so many Real Estate people to work through the processes.

From my now former company I went through the process of changing the logo on a store (the chain I worked for changed logo design and color dramatically in 2008, changed logo again in 2013 and went back to the original color, and as of 2022 still hasn't even come close to changing half the signs to the newest logo - someone is probably going to figure out who I worked for from this clue but I'm not going to confirm or deny). We had to pay out tens of thousands of dollars to the landlord as part of our lease due to the CC&R restrictions of that property. We had to pay for replacements of all shopping center way finding signage in its entirety just because our logo changed. They even got to charge us to update the pictures on their own website. It cost a fortune, but what was funny is that changing the sign on an old established store caused an immediate and sustained sales increase. I swear that this simple process to call a sign company and tell them to swap out old for new cost me a hundred hours of my own time because the lease was so darned restrictive. So if Rite Aid has stores like that, and every chain does, then again it might not be worth it to change the logo even if the store is a good performer.

Future shopping center plans could factor in. If the landlord is planning to remodel the exterior in a few years to a completely new design where the signs would have to be replaced again then they will likely wait for the project to rebrand - especially if there is landlord contribution with the remodel.

And Rite Aid is still adding stores too. Just saw a new store finalizing ground up construction in French Valley, California (an up and coming town north of Temecula). The sign is already installed and is draped currently as is typical of new California pharmacies - some new law passed about a decade ago and I've noticed that both CVS and Rite Aid install their signs then immediately cover them with white banners until soft opening day one. I guess that because of the increase in usage of pharmacies as urgent care clinics the state is afraid of someone seeing a new store not ready for customers and going there for urgent care. The fact that the state passed such a law shows that they really don't have much real work to do in Sacramento... This law was followed by the "slack space packaging law" which prohibits too much air space in food packages. Some legislator must have been sitting around eating a bag of chips on game day and decided that there was too much air in the bag so they decided to prohibit too much "air space". Forget the fact that means most manufacturers of food stuffs now have to make new secondary California approved packages, causing price increases. Never mind the fact that if there is a supply chain problem that means they're going to make for the other 49 states first causing out of stocks here. And of course never mind that maybe the package's empty space was for the protection of the product?!! Ever since this caused the shrinkage of the Frito-Lay bags I've noticed that there are far more tiny shards left at the bottom of the bag - meaning more waste and again more cost. Yes I'm getting carried away here. Government regulations add to every part of this rebrand, time and money, causing some stores to get sent to the back burner.

Signage is a tricky process. I doubt they will ever get to 100% changed. Pretty impressive how far they have gotten in such a short time though. Just can't assume no new sign means no future for the store.

[ClownLoach]

Rite Aid has a program on its website where you can order on the website and pick up in the store. Previously I was able to place an order and pick it up immediately. The store typically fulfilled orders in about 2 minutes.

Now I notice their page says you have to place the order by 8 AM for same day pick up, otherwise it will not be ready until the next day. I figured that was some kind of error or mis-typing. The store closes at 8 PM so I thought maybe they meant 8 PM not 8 AM. I learned the hard way, they did something to their system where the store does not get orders transmitted to it, until the close of business for the evening.

Quite a step backwards. The store is able to match the website pricing however.

New software helps stores batch these orders to reduce the footsteps around the store. Instead of pulling one order at a time the software merges all into one pull list in aisle order with a "pick cart" with multiple divided baskets. One trip around the store could pull at least two dozen orders this way to greatly reduce labor.

Stores like Rite Aid that depend on impulse merchandising to deliver sales do not benefit from these pickup orders. The customer buys less and sticks to their shopping list. Plus it uses far more labor to pull and stage your order "for free pickup" than if you shopped and a cashier rang it up.

Expect to see more of this to help with the labor crisis. Retailers need to kill these free pickup services that customers became too dependent on during early days of COVID. These services do not maintain sales anymore - they wipe out all of the profit in the sale or even turn it negative margin. They have to make these adjustments even if it doesn't seem customer friendly. The labor isn't there and pushing self checkout doesn't do enough to offset the cost.

[Super S]

That Warrenton Store doesn't look to me like it does much business.

I'm not sure about that. There is also a Ross store in the same strip mall. This development has been there for many years and, as I said, even pre-dates the Fred Meyer store there. They likely see an uptick in business during the summer months.

[storewanderer]

Rebranding is really a big effort for a retailer with as many stores as Rite Aid - especially when there is little consistency to the building designs, construction, and lease agreements which is typical of a company that grows through acquisition and rebranding as they have. I am sure they won't rebrand a store to be closed, but at the same time a lack of rebranding is not necessarily a good indicator of the performance or future of a store because it is such a darned difficult situation.

There are areas with strict sign ordinances, some that get stricter every day. There is a CVS in an old strip mall near South Coast Plaza that tried to just update to their slightly different logo (now they add that funky squared off heart and remove the / between CVS and the word pharmacy). They got caught by the city who had revised the allowance down for signage square footage in that area. Changing the sign for the revised logo meant that they were no longer grandfathered in and had to install new signage compliant with the ordinance. They had to change again. The "new" new sign is less than half the size of the original one. So if it's in an area like that they are better off keeping an old logo versus a new smaller sign.

Future shopping center plans could factor in. If the landlord is planning to remodel the exterior in a few years to a completely new design where the signs would have to be replaced again then they will likely wait for the project to rebrand - especially if there is landlord contribution with the remodel.

And Rite Aid is still adding stores too. Just saw a new store finalizing ground up construction in French Valley, California (an up and coming town north of Temecula). The sign is already installed and is draped currently as is typical of new California pharmacies - some new law passed about a decade ago and I've noticed that both CVS and Rite Aid install their signs then immediately cover them with white banners until soft opening day one. I guess that because of the increase in usage of pharmacies as urgent care clinics the state is afraid of someone seeing a new store not ready for customers and going there for urgent care. The fact that the state passed such a law shows that they really don't have much real work to do in Sacramento... This law was followed by the "slack space packaging law" which prohibits too much air space in food packages. Some legislator must have been sitting around eating a bag of chips on game day and decided that there was too much air in the bag so they decided to prohibit too much "air space". Forget the fact that means most manufacturers of food stuffs now have to make new secondary California approved packages, causing price increases.

I was surprised Rite Aid farily easily changed signs on stores in Lake Tahoe which is usually somewhat of a challenge to do anything. The one in South Lake Tahoe did take a little longer than Truckee and Kings Beach took but they were all within the initial timeframe. Kings Beach (former Thrifty JR. in a former bank branch) previously had a wood carved old logo sign and the new sign is not quite as elaborate. The one in Gardnerville, NV got a sign change almost immediately when the campaign was announced.

I think sign changes are better done when a store has been remodeled. If you put a new sign on a dump of an old store I don't think it accomplishes much, if anything. If you have a perfectly fine store and put a new sign on it to attract attention, I can see how that may work out positively, especially if the new sign has better colors or placement. I don't see how the sign changes benefited Rite Aid at all; from what I am seeing their store traffic is no different than before.

I'd have rather seen Rite Aid build a lot more new stores, vs. change all these signs... their store development has been pretty good in Northern California too over the years considering all things (outside the bay area which is pretty anemic for them).

I think other states may have similar weird laws regarding advertising you have a pharmacy when there isn't one operating at present. My favorite is retailers like Kmart who close the pharmacy and do comply with that law by removing the letters from the building. However since the building has been painted a few times over the years on the cheap and they did not remove the pharmacy letters, once they remove the letters, it actually looks more obvious they had a pharmacy, than they did when they had a sign up, due to the scar left on the building. There is a CVS in Sparks, NV on Oddie Blvd. that closed months ago and it still has the CVS sign by the road and the scar on the side and back of the building. It is funny as in the 80's this shopping center had the only Lucky in the Reno market (but there were 2 Gemcos) and when Lucky closed they just painted the sign over black very poorly. Eventually Savers reoccupied it and got a sign.

[ClownLoach]

Rebranding is really a big effort for a retailer with as many stores as Rite Aid - especially when there is little consistency to the building designs, construction, and lease agreements which is typical of a company that grows through acquisition and rebranding as they have. I am sure they won't rebrand a store to be closed, but at the same time a lack of rebranding is not necessarily a good indicator of the performance or future of a store because it is such a darned difficult situation.

There are areas with strict sign ordinances, some that get stricter every day. There is a CVS in an old strip mall near South Coast Plaza that tried to just update to their slightly different logo (now they add that funky squared off heart and remove the / between CVS and the word pharmacy). They got caught by the city who had revised the allowance down for signage square footage in that area. Changing the sign for the revised logo meant that they were no longer grandfathered in and had to install new signage compliant with the ordinance. They had to change again. The "new" new sign is less than half the size of the original one. So if it's in an area like that they are better off keeping an old logo versus a new smaller sign.

Future shopping center plans could factor in. If the landlord is planning to remodel the exterior in a few years to a completely new design where the signs would have to be replaced again then they will likely wait for the project to rebrand - especially if there is landlord contribution with the remodel.

And Rite Aid is still adding stores too. Just saw a new store finalizing ground up construction in French Valley, California (an up and coming town north of Temecula). The sign is already installed and is draped currently as is typical of new California pharmacies - some new law passed about a decade ago and I've noticed that both CVS and Rite Aid install their signs then immediately cover them with white banners until soft opening day one. I guess that because of the increase in usage of pharmacies as urgent care clinics the state is afraid of someone seeing a new store not ready for customers and going there for urgent care. The fact that the state passed such a law shows that they really don't have much real work to do in Sacramento... This law was followed by the "slack space packaging law" which prohibits too much air space in food packages. Some legislator must have been sitting around eating a bag of chips on game day and decided that there was too much air in the bag so they decided to prohibit too much "air space". Forget the fact that means most manufacturers of food stuffs now have to make new secondary California approved packages, causing price increases.

I was surprised Rite Aid farily easily changed signs on stores in Lake Tahoe which is usually somewhat of a challenge to do anything. The one in South Lake Tahoe did take a little longer than Truckee and Kings Beach took but they were all within the initial timeframe. Kings Beach (former Thrifty JR. in a former bank branch) previously had a wood carved old logo sign and the new sign is not quite as elaborate. The one in Gardnerville, NV got a sign change almost immediately when the campaign was announced.

I think sign changes are better done when a store has been remodeled. If you put a new sign on a dump of an old store I don't think it accomplishes much, if anything. If you have a perfectly fine store and put a new sign on it to attract attention, I can see how that may work out positively, especially if the new sign has better colors or placement. I don't see how the sign changes benefited Rite Aid at all; from what I am seeing their store traffic is no different than before.

I'd have rather seen Rite Aid build a lot more new stores, vs. change all these signs... their store development has been pretty good in Northern California too over the years considering all things (outside the bay area which is pretty anemic for them).

I think other states may have similar weird laws regarding advertising you have a pharmacy when there isn't one operating at present. My favorite is retailers like Kmart who close the pharmacy and do comply with that law by removing the letters from the building. However since the building has been painted a few times over the years on the cheap and they did not remove the pharmacy letters, once they remove the letters, it actually looks more obvious they had a pharmacy, than they did when they had a sign up, due to the scar left on the building. There is a CVS in Sparks, NV on Oddie Blvd. that closed months ago and it still has the CVS sign by the road and the scar on the side and back of the building. It is funny as in the 80's this shopping center had the only Lucky in the Reno market (but there were 2 Gemcos) and when Lucky closed they just painted the sign over black very poorly. Eventually Savers reoccupied it and got a sign.

They have a new build store that opened about two or three years ago in East Long Beach on PCH and it has not been updated to the new logo, and I'm guessing it won't be anytime soon as they got exceptions for the size of the signs on the store. Probably the same situation where changing the logo means smaller signs.

I totally agree about the rebranding and how it should only apply to updated stores. They aren't doing much to tell the public what is different inside despite the new logo - the entire concept is that they are mixing together traditional pharmaceutical products with herbal/vitamin type products allowing the customer to choose between them. This has been helpful as I found a herbal product that works better than antacid drugs and has no side effects by shopping at Rite Aid after this reset was done. They do the new planograms like this in the existing wellness format though - the next generation concept is the same stuff in a different looking facility. Not sure if that new look would actually drive more sales. I'm curious about that new build near Temecula and if it will actually be their new concept - my understanding is that they have only put up a handful of those. It looked very expensive to build from the pictures - even more than their current "Wellness" format which is really a nice, well lit, well constructed store with expensive tile flooring that reminds me of Ulta Beauty. I can't picture any of the "Wellness" format stores being remodeled to this newer format as it is radically different style of fixtures, lighting, millwork signage and flooring. There's really nothing wrong with the "Wellness" and they still have some old stores that never got remodeled out of the PayLess or early Rite Aid slanted aisle layouts although they're disappearing.

[storewanderer]

They have a new build store that opened about two or three years ago in East Long Beach on PCH and it has not been updated to the new logo, and I'm guessing it won't be anytime soon as they got exceptions for the size of the signs on the store. Probably the same situation where changing the logo means smaller signs.

I totally agree about the rebranding and how it should only apply to updated stores. They aren't doing much to tell the public what is different inside despite the new logo - the entire concept is that they are mixing together traditional pharmaceutical products with herbal/vitamin type products allowing the customer to choose between them. This has been helpful as I found a herbal product that works better than antacid drugs and has no side effects by shopping at Rite Aid after this reset was done. They do the new planograms like this in the existing wellness format though - the next generation concept is the same stuff in a different looking facility. Not sure if that new look would actually drive more sales. I'm curious about that new build near Temecula and if it will actually be their new concept - my understanding is that they have only put up a handful of those. It looked very expensive to build from the pictures - even more than their current "Wellness" format which is really a nice, well lit, well constructed store with expensive tile flooring that reminds me of Ulta Beauty. I can't picture any of the "Wellness" format stores being remodeled to this newer format as it is radically different style of fixtures, lighting, millwork signage and flooring. There's really nothing wrong with the "Wellness" and they still have some old stores that never got remodeled out of the PayLess or early Rite Aid slanted aisle layouts although they're disappearing.

There is a store in Boise that had Wellness and has been remodeled into the new format, 1515 West State Street. I can't find any pictures online but it was a really good looking Wellness Store. There are supposedly a couple in the new format in SoCal- I am not sure where.

I was/am really on board with Rite Aid's integration of the alternative products into their sets, which seemed to be taking place before they announced the new format. I was hoping to see a lot more alternative items introduced but so far the number of SKUs introduced has been rather limited. I think it is a delicate balance- that alternative product, probably does not carry the same profit margin as the Rite Aid brand version of the over the counter item you might have bought would have carried. But it is all about customer choice and ideally if they carry both the conventional OTC items and an assortment of alternative items they should be able to capture more customers into the stores. I am not sure how many customers are aware of their mix expansion. There are many excellent alternative items that work great. And trying them has little downside given they are often herbal/natural, the worst thing that can happen is they won't work. With that said for a while before COVID Rite Aid would have a small table set up, either near entry or near pharmacy, with some samples and coupons of a few of these alternative items. The execution of this seemed to be a little sloppy and some stores either didn't get the samples shipped in or they did not set the tables up.

Rite Aid has always built a nice looking store... even if not always the most functional (the concept of building a store with straight aisles is one they have never been too hot on, but Wellness remodels did straighten out a lot of store layouts).

[buckguy]

They've had the GNC co-branding relationship for quite awhile so this is more evolution than anything else. At least it gives them something of a niche. I'm sure this merchandise has huge markups---GNC is usually the last to exit a dead mall and they couldn't do that without big margins. As for safety, people often discover allergies to unfamiliar products, natural or otherwise.

Even with he Bartell acquisition, Rite-Aid doesn't seem to have the capital to do large scale renovations and probably lack the nimbleness to do good, targeted promotions. They haven't really executed a large scale strategy since before their not quite merger with Walgreens. The one thing they have going for them is that Walgreens is a bit rudderless at this point and CVS is focusing on pulling back on their over-expansion.

[storewanderer]

Here is a strange closure. 24 hour store, busy area in NYC. New logo applied outside. Looking at the photos of the store this is easily the nicest looking Rite Aid I've ever seen. It has the later Wellness package but has upgraded tile flooring and just looks really, really good. I am assuming some of the very high shelves with cabinets on the top shelf are for product storage which certainly looks better than a bunch of random stuff on the top shelf visible. Also interesting is the store's rating on Google Maps- 4.4/5. Not sure I've ever seen a chain drugstore with such high customer ratings on Google.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

[ClownLoach]

Here is a strange closure. 24 hour store, busy area in NYC. New logo applied outside. Looking at the photos of the store this is easily the nicest looking Rite Aid I've ever seen. It has the later Wellness package but has upgraded tile flooring and just looks really, really good. I am assuming some of the very high shelves with cabinets on the top shelf are for product storage which certainly looks better than a bunch of random stuff on the top shelf visible. Also interesting is the store's rating on Google Maps- 4.4/5. Not sure I've ever seen a chain drugstore with such high customer ratings on Google.
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny ... story.html

The story said it opened in 1996 - wonder if it's really a lease issue where they ran out of term and the landlord wants way too much for a new lease? And on top of that something must have happened nearby, probably a new competitor that took too large a bite out of the local market. Most stores with large seasonal departments have a peak kick out on their lease where they can decide not to renew and stay in place month to month for up to 90 days after Christmas. Back in 1996 drugstores generally had more seasonal merchandise than they do today and would get those kinds of leases (craft stores and discounters like Big Lots also have those terms). It is odd that it received the ultra deluxe Wellness package with the premium floors - those are few and far between - they wouldn't have given that level of remodel to anything less than a top volume store. The overhead storage also indicates high volume.